Tip Calculator

For sit-down table service in the US, 15% to 20% is the customary range, with 18% a comfortable middle and 20% the common default in cities and for good service. The arithmetic is simple: a $50 bill at 18% adds $9, for a $59 total, and split between two people that is $29.50 each. Other situations follow different conventions, and the useful thing to know is that they are conventions rather than rules. Bartenders are commonly tipped either a flat amount per drink or a percentage of the tab. Food delivery is usually tipped as a percentage with an informal floor for small orders, since the driver's effort does not shrink just because the order did. Counter service with a tip screen is genuinely discretionary and widely treated that way. Hotel housekeeping and porters, valets, hairdressers, taxi and rideshare drivers all have their own customs, and they vary by region and by decade. The reason any of this exists is structural. Federal law permits employers in many states to count tips toward meeting the minimum wage — the "tip credit" — so in those places tipped workers receive a lower direct cash wage and depend on tips for the balance. A number of states restrict or prohibit the practice and require the full state minimum wage before tips. That is worth knowing when deciding what a tip means in a given place, and the Department of Labor reference below sets out how the rules work.

Strictly, a tip is calculated on the pre-tax subtotal — the food and drink, not the sales tax, which never reaches the server or the restaurant. The difference is smaller than the argument it generates. On a $100 subtotal in a place with 8% sales tax, the check reads $108. A 20% tip is $20 on the subtotal and $21.60 on the total: $1.60 apart. On a $40 dinner the gap is about 65 cents. So both practices are defensible. Tipping on the pre-tax figure is the technically correct one and matters more as the bill grows. Tipping on the total is simpler, slightly more generous, and the difference is trivial on ordinary checks. One place to be careful: card terminals and delivery apps often present suggested tip buttons calculated on the total including tax and fees, which quietly nudges the effective rate above the percentage shown on the button. If you want a precise number, enter it yourself rather than tapping the suggestion.

You rarely need a calculator for this, and the shortcuts are worth having. 10% is the anchor: move the decimal one place left. On a $47.80 check that is $4.78. 20% is that doubled, $9.56. 15% is 10% plus half of 10%, so $4.78 + $2.39 = $7.17. 18% sits between 15% and 20%, close enough to split the difference at about $8.60. A second approach that many people find faster in a restaurant: double the tax. Where the combined sales tax rate is near 9–10%, doubling the tax line gives roughly a 18–20% tip with no arithmetic at all. Where the local rate is much lower or much higher, the trick breaks — so check what your area charges before relying on it. And it is entirely normal to round. Rounding the total to a whole dollar, or to the nearest $5, makes the bill easier to split and costs pennies.

Large parties, private events and some venues add an automatic service charge, often in the 18–20% region. When one is on the check, additional tipping is optional; the common mistake is adding a full tip on top without noticing, which doubles it. Worth knowing: a mandatory service charge and a voluntary tip are treated differently. A tip is money the customer chose to give and generally belongs to the employee. A mandatory service charge is revenue to the business, which may or may not distribute it to staff — some establishments state on the menu that it is shared with the team, and where they say nothing, it is fair to ask. Separately, many restaurants operate tip pooling, where servers share tips with bussers, runners and bar staff. There are federal rules about who may participate in a pool and about employers keeping any portion of tips. None of that changes what you pay; it changes who receives it, which is sometimes useful context when deciding between cash and card. On that choice: cash tips reach the recipient immediately and avoid card processing deductions where those are passed on. Tips of either kind are income and are reportable by the employee — the IRS reference below covers how tip reporting works.

The default in this calculator is the simple case: add the tip to the bill and divide by the number of people. A $120 bill at 18% is $141.60, or $35.40 each between four. When the orders were not comparable, an even split stops being fair, and the cleanest fix keeps the tip proportional. Work out each person's share of the subtotal, then apply the same percentage to their share of tax and tip. Someone who accounted for 40% of the food pays 40% of the tip. Doing it this way avoids the common awkwardness where the person who had a salad and water subsidizes the table's wine. A few practical notes. Splitting across multiple cards is easy at some restaurants and genuinely difficult at others — asking early is better than asking at the end. If one person pays and the rest reimburse, sending the exact figure including their share of tax and tip prevents the slow leak where the payer absorbs the rounding every time. And when the table is close to agreement, rounding each share up by a dollar covers any shortfall and turns into a slightly better tip rather than an argument.